It's My Blog

Miami Wrapup

2009-10-24T19:31:00.004-04:00

Clemson just beat Miami 40-37 in overtime. I don't know what in the world happened in this game. Our defense looked like they had swine flu. Our offense played pretty well, with the exception of Parker's panic fumble. Our coaches proved once again that they are rookies learning on the job. The game management of the last two minutes was amateurish. I haven't seen clock management that bad since Tommy West. When you hire rookies... At least we won. Hopefully our coaches can learn from their mistakes.

CJ Spiller is definitely the MVP of this team. I still can't wait until Harper and Ellington are running the ball. Hopefully we'll get a receiver to make up for Spiller's ability there.

Go Sign up at www.opencongress.org

2009-10-21T12:07:00.003-04:00

I just found out about this site and I have to say it is a great idea: www.opencongress.org

I encourage everyone to go and sign up and follow the issues that are important to you, as well as your elected Representatives. The great thing about this site is that you can add your input to each issue, bill, or representative. It's basically the Facebook of politics. (here is my profile, in fact.)

The only think I would like to see added would be a feature that allows people to vote for each other based on their viewpoints on issues and bills. This site has profiles for elected officials, where you can give them your approval or disapproval. It would be awesome if everyone could make a profile like that for themselves and select to be "up for office" for Mayor, State Rep, Governor, Senator, President, etc. Over time we might come up with candidates for these positions that are actually picked by the people of the country instead of the party leaders and/or the media. We might actually get a representative government.

Obama Plans to Destroy Healthcare

2009-10-20T22:16:00.003-04:00

I'm going to keep this short but I wanted to write this down. I have figured out the great O's plan for socialized health care.

He is allowing the public option to be left out of this current legislation so that all of the rest of the bullshit regulation and taxes and penalties for small businesses and everything else can stay in and make it through the house and senate. He knows that this will only make health care in this country worse, which is why he will sign it into law.

Then, 3-5 years from now, when health care is even worse, all the good doctors have retired, insurance costs 5 times more and medicare is completely bankrupting the country, the Democrats will say with glee "See! We told you we needed a single payer system! Look what the free market has done! The evil capitalists are ruining your health care!" and they will push for new legislation that will amount to a complete government takeover of the entire medical industry.

They are purposefully harming the lives of Americans to get their dream of socialized health care passed, knowing that once that shoe falls, all out socialism will be next.

Sadly, they will not allow the real solution to take place. They will not allow an actual free market solution. We do not currently have a free market, and we never have. If we did, we wouldn't be in this mess. Freedom is their enemy though, they want to control our lives and enrich themselves using propaganda and the force of government. If we don't stop them now, then we will get what we deserve.

Wake Wrapup

2009-10-18T09:51:00.002-04:00

Clemson beat Wake Forest 38-3 this weekend in a game that turned out exactly like it should have given the makeup of the two teams. Unfortunately for Clemson, it took a loss to an extremely poor team (Maryland) to get the coaches fired up enough to make the routine game look routine. The defense played like they have all year, but the offense came out inspired and basically dominated Wake all day. There were two differences this week that made the performance possible:

1) The receivers actually caught the ball. It's amazing how great the offensive line and the quarterback look when the receivers actually make the catch. Last game "the OL sucks!" but now they're awesome, only nothing they did changed. Wake's defense wasn't able to play us tight and our drives didn't end on third down and it was all for the simple reason that we actually caught the ball this week.

2) The Tight End was used as an integral part of the passing game. We have thrown to the tight end a few times this year but in this game it was obvious that we were trying to get him the ball. The reason this is so important is that it forces the linebackers to respect the passing game, which makes running the ball that much easier. Also the tight end is a good target because he's usually bigger than the defensive backs and they usually catch the ball (although not always.)

That's really it. It wasn't some magical improvement in the blocking or in the running game or in the quarterback or in the playcalling. It was the simple fact that we caught the damn ball. Amazing how that works.

Some other notes:
- CJ Spiller has got to get the ball upfield faster. He simply dances too much. By the time he was able to make his long 60+ yard TD run we already had Wake's defense on their heels and the line opened up such a huge hole that even CJ had time to get there.
- CJ Spiller is simply an amazing open field runner. We need to put him in a position where he can get the ball in the open field instead of taking handoffs.
- Kyle Parker is still hesitating in the passing game. He makes the throw just a split second too late but luckily he has the arm strength to still deliver the ball.
- Korn throws late, slow, and low. Glad he's only in the game when it's over.
- I really like the attitude of our Defense, especially how our DB's go for the ball instead of going for the hit.

One last thing: our offensive coaching staff should be fired ASAP. This game proves that we have the talent to dominate the ACC on the offensive side of the ball. The loss to Maryland shows that we do not properly coach that talent to utilize their skills. There is simply no excuse for the difference in performance between the Maryland game and the Wake game, and we need to bring in a real Offensive Coordinator (and whatever support staff he wants) so that this doesn't happen again. If we don't, we will be doomed to repeat our recent history.

Results of my College Football Picks

2009-10-18T09:35:00.002-04:00

Alright so lets see how I did:

Clemson 38, Wake 3
My Prediction: Clemson
Just like I thought, hotseat warms up for the coach, and all of the sudden the players can "execute."

Texas 16, Oklahoma 13
My Prediction: Texas -3.5
These two teams all of the sudden started playing defense. Either that or their offenses just sputtered out completely. I never expected this to be a defensive struggle in the Big 12.

Florida 23, Arkansas 20
My Prediction: Arkansas to cover the 24 point spread, but lose
I definitely didn't expect the close game that resulted, but I also knew Arkansas could keep it under 24. Florida seems to be half stepping it, like they are just going to inherit the championship for being Florida.

GT 28, VT 23
My Prediction: Virginia Tech -3
I never expected this to happen. I haven't watched the game but I'm going to have to catch the replay some time this week. I thought for sure VT would win.

Alabama 20, USC 6
My Prediction: Bama wins but no idea if they cover
USC played inspired defense against a pretty damn good Alabama offense. The Cocks' offense sputtered like everyone thought they would, but they still managed to cover the 17 point spread.

So, against the spread I was 2-2-1, and without the spread I was 4-1. Pretty mediocre performance I'd say.

Some College Football Picks

2009-10-15T09:57:00.004-04:00

I haven't been writing much lately about politics or anything other than football and it looks like that trend is going to continue. One of these days I'll get back to the American Fascism series detailing how much control the government has over our lives but for now I'm going to stay on the positive side and talk about something I like: football.

So here are some quick picks for this weekend's games:

Clemson vs Wake Forrest: Clemson
Dabo Swinney is turning out to be Tommy 2.0 and just like Tommy I expect him to pull out a big win when his ass is on the hot seat. I don't know the line on this game, but I doubt Clemson is favored.

Texas vs Oklahoma: Texas
The line is 3.5 at this point and Texas will cover. Oklahoma is just not that good, even with Sam Bradford. Also this is the Big Offense league so I doubt the game will have a difference of a field goal.

Florida vs Arkansas: Arkansas
Florida is going to beat Arkansas, but the line is a ridiculous 25 points right now. If there's one thing Arkansas can do, it is score touchdowns. They may lose by 14, but I seriously doubt they lose by 25.

Virginia Tech vs Georgia Tech: Virginia Tech
As much as I like Paul Johnson and his option offense, he does not have a bona fide option quarterback at this point. Nesbit is a great athlete but he does not make the right reads. In fact, you can tell when you watch them play that he is actually pre-determining his reads before the snap instead of reading the defensive end like he's supposed to. Bud Foster will stop this easily, and Virginia Tech will cover the 3 point spread against the soft Georgia Tech defense.

Alabama vs South Carolina: ???
Alabama is giving up 17 to South Carolina and while I know Alabama will win, I have no clue by what margin. SC is not a good team but if they were playing in Columbia I would have to say Alabama won't cover. However this game is at Alabama and so there's no upside down cockroach to save them.

Maryland Reaction

2009-10-06T08:37:00.002-04:00

Clemson lost to Maryland this past saturday 24-21. I sat down last night to watch my recording of the game so that I could dissect everything that happened, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. After watching the first quarter of the game, I saw all that I needed to see.

As I said in my writeup of the TCU game, this team suffers from a lack of experience and/or talent in the offensive coaching staff. We didn't improve on any of the problems I listed, and we continued to look lost and panicked on the offensive side of the ball. This week, our defense didn't save us, and so we lost an embarrassing game to a pitiful team.

Clemson should have never hired Dabo Swinney without stipulating that he bring in a new offensive coordinator with a new offensive coaching staff. There are some who argue that they didn't even look for any other coaches, and that Dabo had the job from day one. Whatever the case, we have not rid ourselves of the scourge that is Tommy Bowden football. Inconsistent offense, shaky special teams, and good defense. We've got the same thing now that we've had for the last 10 years. This is not going to change under the current coaching staff.

So what should we do? Well it's simple, we need Dabo to remove himself from calling plays and we need a real offensive coordinator. If we can't do this right now, then we need to put Brad Scott in charge of the offense until the end of the year, then bring in a completely new offensive coaching staff. Brad Scott might even work for the long term, he was a great offensive coordinator at Florida State and he had some success here at Clemson before being thrown under the bus by Tommy Bowden.

I think Dabo is a great guy and will be a great head coach, but he needs to clean house on the offensive side of the ball and bring in some real coaches. Our plays develop too slowly, we never run basic routes like quick slants or TE curls, our receivers can't block, catch, or run routes, etc, etc. These problems all point to bad coaching, and we have to fix that now or by the end of the year Dabo won't have a job.

TCU Wrapup

2009-09-27T15:22:00.003-04:00

Well it was another rainy weekend in Clemson and another close loss as the Tigers went down to TCU 14-10. Just as I predicted before the season, we were one big special teams play away from the victory. The defense put up a great effort and if it wasn't for a fluke reception we may have held the offensive "powerhouse" to just 7 points. Unfortunately the offense didn't help out any and here are a few of the problems I think we continue to show on that side of the ball:

1) Receiving – we can’t catch and we can’t run routes. Ford, our best receiver, dropped a sure first down on the first drive of the game that foreshadowed things to come. He would have had an easier time catching it if he had just run a crisp route, but still, he should have caught it.

2) Rushing – our running plays develop too slowly and our runningbacks hesitate to hit the hole. This may work out from time to time for a big play but whenever the D stiffens up (red zone, 3rd and short, etc) it results in no gain.

3) Game Management – Our defense was one fluke catch away from a shutout when we decided to go for it on 4th down. Makes no sense, especially when we can’t run worth shit. Punt the damn ball and play D. Also, let’s not even mention the last minute of the game.

4) Quarterback – While Parker did a great job and made some great throws in bad conditions, he also showed a tendency to drift to the right side of the field. I’m glad that he steps up in the pocket and looks downfield instead of drifting out the back, but after that he should either throw the ball or tuck and run. Drifting to the right takes away half of the receivers and turns 2nd and 5 or less into 2nd and 10. The one exception would be a desperation situation like our second to last possession.

These problems stem from an inexperienced offensive coaching staff. I still think our biggest mistake as a program was not hiring an experienced offensive coordinator. I'm sure Napier is a good buddy and a great guy, but that doesn't mean he should have been hired as OC when we have such an inexperienced head coach. The vacuum on that side of the ball is clearly evident.

That being said, here are a few things I think we should do in order to improve the offense:

1) Route Running drills - After practice conditioning for receivers should be route running drills. They should have to run them perfectly or get back in line and run them again. This should progress through at least 10 different routes, 3 times each.

2) Ball Catching drills - Texas Tech uses tennis balls. Jerry Rice used bricks. Either way, let's come up with some catching drills that will get our guys to focus on the damn ball. Running better routes will make catching easier, but catching drills will attack the problem directly. Also we should institute practice rules like they do in the pro's, where if you drop a pass you pay a penalty. In college, that penalty can be several things: gassers, more study time, extra weights time, stadium steps, etc.

3) Running Play Construction - Our coaches need to go back to the drawing board when it comes to most of our running plays, and some passing plays need to be re-considered for inclusion. For running plays, I love the fact that we're using the fullback more often, but we need to get the RB to the hole much faster and this involves where the RBs line up, where they take the handoff, and their run progression. In case this isn't it already, our RBs should be coached on the following run progression: 1) take the handoff, 2) hit the hole, 3) make one cut (if needed), 4) run your landmarks (hash, numbers, sideline). This should be reinforced in the film room by showing how plays have opened up in actual games only to be shut down before the ball is advanced, and it should be reinforced in practice by using the non-contact periods to practice timing.

4) Pass Play Construction - We completely neglect the quick-hitting upfield passing game. We have the fastest receiver in the nation (Ford) and yet he's only caught one quick slant in his career (last year vs Nebraska.) The success of that one play should have shown the coaches something they should incorporate in the gameplan each week. We need to include the plays that get the ball upfield and get it upfield fast. Screens have been used sparingly this year and that trend should continue. The tight end has been used sparingly this year and that trend should be reversed. We have a young quarterback with receivers that are letting him down: make the tight end the second receiver in the progression, he presents an easy target for the QB and he attacks the middle of the coverage, usually a weak spot.

5) Quarterback Progression - We need to get Kyle Parker to make a decision after he's stepped up into the pocket: run or pass. He is doing a great job of making his drops, scanning the field, then stepping up into the pocket (instead of drifting out of the back.) Now we need him to either deliver the ball or to pick up a quick 5 yards if nobody is in front of him. I love his ability to keep the play alive, but we need to keep drives alive and our current habit of having the QB slide out to the right side is just not getting it done.

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of right now. Overall I think we have a good team and we have a lot to be excited about. We should drum a terrible Maryland team this week and use our off week to whip our offense into shape. Considering the weakness of our schedule coming up (with the possible exception of Miami, although I think VT showed how weak they are when faced with a good defense) we are in position to win our division and face VT in the conference championship. There is no reason this team shouldn't be able to accomplish this, it just depends on our offensive coaching staff.

Boston College Wrapup

2009-09-20T15:20:00.003-04:00

The Tigers beat Boston College 25-7 yesterday in the longest football game in Clemson Football history. CJ Spiller had the only Tiger touchdown on the day with a long punt return and Richard Jackson scored the bulk of the points on 6 field goals including a long 52 yarder. The real story of the day was the Clemson defense which absolutely dominated the Eagles and held them to 55 yards. If our offense had managed to do anything noteworthy, the defensive numbers may have been even more staggering.

Unfortunately our offense was eerily reminiscent of Tommy Bowden run teams, with the exception of the use of the fullback. We seemed quick to abandon the fundamentals and our playcalling seemed panicked and gimmick-filled. When our quarterback started out a little shaky, we pulled him in favor of the fan-favorite backup. When our receivers dropped a few passes, we started running screens and junk plays. We showed in our third game of the year that we have a very inexperienced head coach and an even more inexperienced offensive coordinator.

Some other noteworthy events happened this week in the ACC, mainly Miami dominated Georgia Tech and Florida State dominated BYU. Both of these games mean that I may have underestimated Miami and FSU in my pre-season prediction. Then again, Miami did face a bad pass defense in GT as well as a complete lack of a pass rush due to Tech trying their all-star defensive end out at linebacker for some reason. FSU was a complete surprise but they were playing a bunch of slow Mormons after all.

If we can't turn it around on offense, we're not going to beat Miami or FSU, and our season will go from pretty good to pretty mediocre. We seemed to have something going against Georgia Tech in the second half, so maybe we just need our coaches to pretend like we're behind in every game and they'll call aggressive plays that stretch the defense. Our defense is very good against the pass so we'll be able to stop both Miami and FSU on a lot of drives, but without any offensive production of our own the sheer speed of those two teams will beat us.

Here's to hoping we have a turnaround game with TCU. Our offense needs to play very well if we want to win this game. Our defense just can't do everything for us, and if punting is our best offensive play again this week then this game is going to seem even longer.

Georgia Tech Wrapup

2009-09-10T23:12:00.003-04:00

The game clock just ran out but this Tiger football team is just getting started. I was very impressed by what I saw tonight even though we had a lot of lame-brained mistakes. We started out the game by blowing two offensive opportunities, allowing a big triple option touchdown, allowing a punt return for a touchdown off a blown pooch kick, and allowing a fake punt pass for a touchdown. After that the Tigers locked down Paul Johnson and the triple option, and held Tech to only 3 more points until the last minute of the contest.

Kyle Parker continued to show that he has what it takes to be a great quarterback. The Tiger defense continued to aggressively go after the ball and came up with some big interceptions. Most encouragingly, we made some big time adjustments and went on a 24 unanswered point streak. That is something we never did under the previous coaching staff. Overall we did better in this game than I thought we would and we even spotted Georgia Tech 14 points in the first quarter. Such is to be expected with a young team and a young coach.

The sad thing about this game is that the outcome was radically changed by an officiating mistake. Yes, Clemson made plenty of mistakes and those are the main reason we lost: you take away the 14 points from special teams errors and we win the game by 11. However, that doesn't change the fact that the referee called a holding penalty on an offensive lineman that used correct blocking technique which resulted in the reversal of a long pass play that put the Tigers in field goal range. Our lineman had both of his hands inside, on the numbers, just like you're supposed to. He drove the defensive lineman to the inside towards his teammates like you're supposed to do. The defender fell down as he was being blocked. There was no illegal blocking there and the holding penalty was incorrect.

There is no guarantee that if you take away that bogus penalty with 3 minutes left in the game that Clemson would have won the game. We could have fumbled on the next play, who knows. That still doesn't change the fact that the last 3 minutes of the game were played out differently than they should have been because of a terrible officiating mistake. In such a hard fought game, with one team coming back from such a deficit, it is unacceptable that such poor officiating alters the results of the players on the field.

The great thing is that our coaches and our players showed that they have character: if they get down early, they can make adjustments, find the other guy's weaknesses, and fight back. This is something we haven't seen around Clemson in a long time. Also, our defense showed that it can completely shut down a powerful offense. We will face tougher passing tests this year, but we probably won't face a team that's better at running the ball than we faced tonight, and after a few missteps in the first quarter we completely locked them down for a good 45 minutes. Another positive is that even though we had another boneheaded tipped pass on offense (caused an interception) we had some guys step up and make tough catches and make big passing plays. This is only game 2 and we are showing that we have some seriously dangerous quick strike weapons and we have a quarterback that can get them the damn ball. We have a lot of positives going for us coming out of this close loss.

Some quick notes:

Rendrick Taylor, I'm sorry about what I said in my last post, that was some amazing blocking tonight. I just hope you can realize how much of a beast you are and hit people like that when you're holding the ball.
Dabo, please don't use the field goal pooch kick any more. It's cool if you have a smart kicker, but obviously we do not.
Also, please don't run a trap on 3rd and 1 in a critical situation, especially against a good defensive line. The pulling guard always gets blown up into the backfield and disrupts the play, and against a good defense it just won't work, so stop it.
I counted 4 junk plays tonight. That's 4 too many in my book, but still much better than Bowden (reverse, tunnel screen, and two shotgun options I think)

In conclusion, the Tigers played a lot better tonight than I thought we would. We put together some great drives and we had some great quick strikes. We still had some costly drops, but our offense as a whole really showed some great signs. Unfortunately, just as I predicted, we needed a special teams big play to get the win tonight and we just didn't get one. In fact we got two in reverse, both going for touchdowns for the bad guys. Our defense played much better against the triple option than I thought they would and our team played their hearts out and battled back in the face of seemingly unsurmountable odds. This is going to be a great year for Tiger football and if Dabo learns from his mistakes then we might even get a rematch with these guys at year's end.

Clemson Football 2009 Season Prediction

2009-09-07T15:21:00.008-04:00

I know what you're thinking... it's a little late to do a prediction, football season started Saturday... well, I'm throwing a change-up. It wouldn't make sense to do any sort of predicting before seeing the first game of the year seeing as we have a new coaching staff and a lot of new faces on the field. Now that I've gotten a chance to see how the team is going to react in an actual game situation I think I have a good idea of how this year may pan out.

First let me just say a few things about the win against Middle Tennessee. Watching this game was a refreshing experience (aside from the rain and humidity of the second half.) Having been to the Gator Bowl last year and suffered through that debacle, I really didn't know what to expect this year at all. Saturday some of my fears were put to rest and I saw some really positive things. Most importantly, we have a quarterback. We have a bona fide team leader, an athlete that commands the game, Kyle Parker. This guy was extremely impressive in his first ever college football game. He had great poise in the pocket, he showed the ability to move around to get extra time without panicking, and he even took off for a few nice gains using his feet. When he threw the ball, he used the right speed and touch to deliver the passes appropriately for the situation. Unlike our last 4 quarterbacks, he didn't drift backwards out of the pocket. (This has been a big problem for a while, and one of the reasons less astute observers have blamed the offensive line for our woes.) We've still got to see how Parker reacts against adversity and against a better defense, but he showed he has what it takes to really get the job done. I think the best thing about seeing Parker perform was knowing that if Tommy Bowden was our coach Parker would be on the bench. Now that we're free of coaching through ego and hype we can make adjustments to get the best team on the field and hopefully win games.

Offensively we showed that we are a team with a new coach and a new quarterback. I was relieved that the playcalling wasn't as atrocious as last year, but I was unnerved at the lack of execution shown by our more veteran players. Unlike the Gator Bowl, I think we only ran two "junk" plays (bubble screens, reverses, etc) and in fact we used a lot of traditional formations (a fullback even) and fundamental play calls. We saw a lot of pass plays that were designed to move the ball upfield instead of east and west. It was great to see an offensive strategy that revolved around running the ball and keeping the defense honest by attacking them through the air. If our receivers had caught the ball more often (Parker suffered a Willie Simmons-like fate in the first quarter) we may have developed more rhythm. When we get our feet under us we should have a pretty solid offense. Some other quick thoughts:

Willy Korn is a bust. Kind of like Barack Obama, he was billed as the Messiah, but he sucks. I hope to see him holding a clipboard and wearing a hat for the rest of his Clemson career.

Rendrick Taylor needs to be a possession receiver or try something on defense. He runs like a 250 pound castle of cards. He looks like he's going to hit the hole and tear up the defense, but as soon as a slight gust of wind hits him he goes straight to the ground.

CJ Spiller is a tremendous athlete but I hope we see more of Jamie Harper in the backfield. He's an actual runningback.

Defensively I was very impressed. We allowed one scoring drive at the start of the second half but in all fairness we did have some of the second stringers in at that point (the defensive front especially.) What I liked the most was how we went after the ball aggressively instead of sitting back and keeping the receivers in front of us. We got pressure through the front four and some blitzing and our defensive backs capitalized on that by going after the ball and getting interceptions. Again it was a refreshing change of pace. We need to improve against the run, we were still a little soft up front, but we looked pretty good overall.

Special teams play was excellent. Again we have to remember that the opponent was not very talented, but still it was great to see Spiller and Ford score on kick returns. If we can get good return yardage all year it will really help out our offense which is presently the weakest part of the team. A kick return for a touchdown in a big game will probably mean the difference for us this year as we aren't just going to over power any respectable team on offense.

OK, so how is this going to translate into the rest of the year? Well, here is what I think:

Thu, Sep 10 at Georgia Tech - Loss
Paul Johnson showed last year that he's a great coach and he is turning Georgia Tech into a powerhouse. We are not ready for this challenge yet. Our offense can generate points and big plays but we are not consistent enough yet to face Georgia Tech. They are going to run that triple option until we're blue in the face and our defense is going to be worn out. If our offense could chew up the clock and put together long drives then we might have a chance. Unfortunately, we do not. Georgia Tech Wins.

Sat, Sep 19 Boston College - Win
BC had an impressive score in their opener, but I still don't think they are a good team without Matt Ryan. With the extra couple of days from the GT game our offense will hopefully start to find its rhythm and will come out swinging against BC.

Sat, Sep 26 TCU - Loss
This is going to be our most important regular season game. TCU is going to come into this game with a chip on their shoulder. Their coach is already saying that they are out to prove that the BCS was wrong for snubbing them last year, so supposedly they think they're going to have a BCS caliber record at the end of the year. This is a game that will be a turning point for our guys. If we go out and put TCU in their place and come up with a big win, it could turn this season into something special. If not, we can still salvage a good year and an appearance in the ACC title game. I think our offense is going to come together by this point but I just don't think we're ready for a challenge this big. TCU, despite getting no respect, is a good football team. If we get a couple of big plays on special teams we could pull the upset, but I just don't think we're there yet.

Sat, Oct 3 at Maryland - Win
Maryland showed us against Cal that they are just a weak team. We should win this game easily. We might start slow because of the big game the previous weekend, but hopefully that won't bite us.

Sat, Oct 17 Wake Forest - Win
Another weak ACC opponent. No reason this game shouldn't be a snooze fest. This game should be over by half time.

Sat, Oct 24 at Miami - Win
Miami has some running backs this year, and that scares me. They will have a good defense simply because they always do. Their problems at quarterback will bite them though and I think our defense will come up big with some turnovers. Should be a close game, but I think we will win.

Sat, Oct 31 Coastal Carolina - Win
As a fan it may be disappointing that this game is so late in the season. Fans want every home game to be a big thriller against a big team that will get us on the headlines of Sports Center. I can see why, I mean our campus is amazing on the day of a big game. I really can't think of anywhere I'd rather be. That being said, this is a great opponent to have at this juncture in our schedule. We will use this as an opportunity to heal up some injuries, get some younger guys some snaps, and try and get our legs back under us for the following weekend.

Sat, Nov 7 Florida State - Win
If this game was at Florida State it might be a different story. It's not though. FSU is better than they were last year but they're still no powerhouse. Bobby used to win on speed alone and that just doesn't work any more.

Sat, Nov 14 at North Carolina State - Win
NC State is really going to have to turn things around if they are going to challenge us this year. Their offense was totally inept against SC and their defense wasn't much better. At this point we will be rolling along. The only problem I can see going into this game is that me might have a let-down game after FSU.

Sat, Nov 21 Virginia - Win
Oh how the mighty have fallen. Just a few short years ago Virginia was an NFL talent producing mega-power (or so we were told) and now they are losing to FCS teams. Ouch.

Sat, Nov 28 at South Carolina - Win
If my predictions have been right up to this point (which is a big if) then there is no way in hell we're letting those craptastic cocks ruin our great season. In fact if our offense is hitting on all cylinders then this is going to be a blowout the likes of 63-17 and SC will send yet another college legend to the coaching graveyard. Actually I don't even think it will take a blowout: Steve Spurrier is done after this year, mark it down.

That brings our tally to 10-2 with losses against Georgia Tech and TCU. Injuries or suspensions could change this outlook completely, but at this point I think we have an easy enough schedule and the right amount of talent and coaching to get a ten win season. This could propel us into the ACC championship game where we'll face either GT or VT and I think we will lose. That will still be a great year though and especially good for a first year head coach and first year quarterback. Florida State and Miami are both dangerous opponents that could easily take away one of those wins, but on the flip side, we could scare the daylights out of TCU in Death Valley and come up with some big plays and pull of a major upset, which could possibly propel us to even greater heights.

Even though I'm not sold on Dabo just yet, if our first game is any indication of the type of playcalling we're going to see all year, I really do see us having a 10 win season. If he slips back into trick play Bowden mode then it might be really ugly and hard to watch (like the Gator Bowl) but here's to hoping that doesn't happen. Maybe we'll get another shot at the Gator Bowl this year and make up for last year's performance!

American Fascism - Cars

2009-08-25T15:05:00.003-04:00

You might think of owning a car as the American Dream. Often times America is portrayed in the media (both domestically and internationally) as the country where everyone who is anyone has a car and experiences the freedom of driving around wherever they may please.

There is some truth to this. Because of the geographic layout of the country, most Americans do own cars and use them as their main form of transportation. However, this experience is far from "freedom."

Let's start at the beginning, when a car is manufactured. Each American car company is under the rules and regulations of countless government bureaucracies, from OSHA to the EPA, regulating everything about the way they do business. The most ominous of these regulations has to be the "CAFE standards" which dictate the fuel economy that cars must meet. Nevermind what the customers actually want, you have to make cars this way because the government says so... does that sound like freedom?

Additionally, the United Auto Workers have an unholy alliance with the government and they hold an absolute monopoly on the workforce for the big three auto makers. These union members get paid ridiculously high wages and receive benefits that are totally unrealistic. In fact, their pension plans and healthcare plans are so expensive for the companies that $5000 out of the price of every car you buy goes to paying for the benefits of current and past employees of the company, not including their wages. You would think the car companies could just fire these people and hire new auto workers that aren't so expensive, but they are under tremendous political pressure to not do so, an there is even a handful of labor laws that prevent such action. Sound like freedom? Not so much.

So, whenever you go and buy a car in our supposedly capitalist economy, keep in mind the fact that you're paying for exorbitant costs of labor (which the companies are forced to hire) and for whimsical government regulation.

Now lets talk about your own experience of buying a car and driving it home. When you go to the dealer to purchase a car, keep in mind that you could just buy a car over the internet like anything else... if the government would allow it! Think about how much you could save by buying directly from the manufacturer. Think about all the games you have to play with the dealers to get a reasonable price and what a lovely waste of time that is. You hardly can find the car that's got exactly the features you want, and if you let on that you've found just that, you're never getting the price down. Thanks again to Uncle Sam.

Once you've gotten your new car and you drive it off the lot, you are now participating in yet another government monopoly: the highway system. Most people might think that roads are a proper role of government but are they really? If you live in a city of more than 100,000 people, when is the last time you looked around and said "boy rush hour traffic sure is a breeze!" How about never? Ever wonder why mass transit in most places is generally horrible and doesn't go anywhere you need to go? Well the government is "competing" with transportation alternatives by taking tax money and building roads everywhere. How then could a mass transit company come in and attract enough of a market base to warrant the investment? They can't.

OK so you have your car and you're driving on the government roads, you're scott free, right? Wrong. You'd better make sure you pay your "property tax" on that new car for as long as you have it. If you fail to make that payment, the government will come to your house and steal your car. Let's say your property tax bill is $300. Your car might have cost $30,000. You fail to pay that $300 bill and the government physically takes your $30,000 property from you. Is that freedom? I think not.

While you're driving, you'd better not take any cough syrup, or drive faster than the arbitrarily set speed limit, or forget to wear your seat belt, or roll through a stop sign where nobody else is around, or turn left when there's a red left turn arrow, or have any firearms in the car, or... you get the point. Granted, some traffic safety rules are necessary, but as I've already contended the roads should be controlled by private companies and not by the government. In that case the rules would probably be a lot less arbitrary. If they weren't, people would just use different roads, or a different method of transportation.

I have just lightly touched on this subject and illustrated many ways in which the government controls your personal activity of car ownership. I'm sure there's much more out there that I haven't included. The point of this exercise is not to give you a list of statistics or a ton of legal documents to read, it's just to explore individual pieces of our every day lives and think of how many ways the government controls them. When you live in a system of government control, you live in a fascist system. A quick look at the Auto Industry has illustrated this clearly.

Billy Mays was not on Cocaine

2009-08-10T13:19:00.004-04:00

A few days ago, TMZ leaked Billy Mays' autopsy report and jumped to the conclusion that his death was caused by cocaine use.

Official documents show the following drugs were in Mays' system -- hydrocodone (Vicodin), oxycodone (painkiller), alprazolam (Xanax), nordiazepam (Valium), benzoylecgonine (byproduct of cocaine) and temazepam (anti-anxiety). Ethanol -- alcohol -- was also in Mays' system.

So, because they found benzoylecgonine, they jumped to the conclusion that not only was he using cocaine, but that was also the major contributor in his death.

Mays' family reacted by releasing the following statement:

We are extremely disappointed by the press release released by the Hillsborough County medical examiner's office. We believe it contains speculative conclusions that are frankly unnecessary and tend to obscure the conclusion that Billy suffered from chronic, untreated hypertension, which only demonstrates how important it is to regularly monitor one's health. Given the hectic nature and pace of Billy's life, especially during the past 10 months of his exhaustive travel across the country, it was not surprising to hear that hypertension was the cause of his death. We were totally unaware of any non prescription drug usage and are actively considering an independent evaluation of the autopsy results. As those who were close to Billy knew, he had been in chronic pain for more than two years and was about to have his third hip surgery in 18 months. His use of prescription pain medication for his hip condition was guided by his physician and was at recommended usage levels. This has been a very difficult period for our family and we appreciate the respect for our privacy that Billy's many clients, fans and members of the media have extended. We appreciate your continued thoughts and prayers for the family and will not have any immediate comment beyond this statement.

Now take the fact that Mays was in chronic pain and consider this fact: Benzoylecgonine is used as the main pharmaceutical ingredient in the prescripition drug Esterom, a topical solution used for the relief of muscle pain.

I admit, I don't have any direct knowledge of what prescription drugs Mays was taking. However, it's not that great of a leap in logic to assume that he was using topical pain relief for his hip. The man was famous for pitching and using every consumer product out there, so if there was a solution recommended for his hip then he was going to use it.

This whole "controversy" is just an example of people hating the good for being the good. Mays was a model citizen and an illustration of the American work ethic. He rose from nothing to a rich celebrity and he helped others reach wealth along the way. This type of success is directly contrary to the age of envy in which we currently live, so the vultures in pop culture are trying anything they can to destroy his image after his death. Well they won't fool me and I hope they don't fool you.

American Fascism - flag@whitehouse.gov

2009-08-08T08:44:00.003-04:00

It's been an extremely busy week for me so I haven't had time to start out the series of posts on my theory of American Fascism, but I saw something yesterday that is both frightening and motivating: the President of the United States is asking citizens of the country to report anyone who disagrees with socialized medicine. Yes, that is right, we're supposed to snitch on dissenters and send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Up until this point in history, Fascism in America has been indirect as I stated in my opening post. This development is shockingly clear: the Obama Administration is getting more and more direct with each passing day. The next logical step is for the "citizen corps" to start rounding up dissenters and sending them to re-education camps. You don't think the Brownshirts could ever happen in this country? Think again.

Clemson Wasted James Davis

2009-08-08T08:39:00.005-04:00

Every time I read an article like this, it makes me even more angry at how the Clemson Administration runs the football team. If they would have canned Tommy Bowden when they should have, we might have been able to fully utilize the talents of Mr. Davis, and he would have been a first rounder with a really big signing bonus.

He's already turning heads in the NFL which comes as no surprise to anyone who watched him play, but he's going to have to climb the ladder the hard way instead of being a franchise player directly from the start.

American Fascism

2009-08-03T16:52:00.004-04:00

America has devolved into a fascist society. It may seem shocking to hear this, but it is true. We all pledge allegiance to the flag, to freedom, and justice for all, but what do we really experience? It's not freedom, and it's not justice.

Fascism is a system of Statism where the individual retains ownership of property but does not retain control of its use. In other words, it's like Socialism in that the government controls the economy, but instead of outright ownership, they simply create a web of rules and regulations and edicts that force you to comply with their wishes.

I intend to illustrate that our current government is not destroying Capitalism, but instead that we destroyed Capitalism long ago, and now we are moving from Fascism to Socialism. I will do so in a series of blog posts where I illustrate a particular aspect of life in our society.

If we are to return to prosperity, if we are to escape statist slavery and return to freedom, we need to discard our government and establish a new system, tightly bound by the proper role of government: protection of individual rights. The new government will only perform three functions:
1) Police - To protect us from each other
2) Military - To protect us from other nations
3) Courts - To protect us from fraud and settle contractual disputes

If, and only if, we are able to establish this government, will will then realize actual freedom, and we will enjoy tremendous prosperity.

For a more full explanation of rights and the proper role of government, I refer you to "Man's Rights" by Ayn Rand.

The Health Care Lie

2009-07-27T23:14:00.003-04:00

All the time, in the news and from the President, we hear that there are 45.7 million Americans who "don't have access to health care."

This is a lie.

In reality, there are only about 10.1 million Americans who can't get health care, and even that is an over-estimate.

The new socialized health care plan will cost an estimated $1,000,000,000,000 but will only cover 97% of the American people.

Let's do some quick math:
- 10.1 million people currently aren't covered
- There are about 300 million people in the USA (legally)
- 97% coverage means 3% are not covered
- 3% of 300 million is 9 million

So, this new program (which is morally wrong and will ruin our entire health care system) will only actually provide coverage for about 1.1 million Americans, or 1/3 of 1 percent.

Why is this a big deal? It is obvious: this plan will kill private health care for everyone but the rich elite. It is not a plan to cover the folks who need care but can't afford it. It is a plan to kill private health insurance. The government wants us all on Uncle Sam's shitty coverage so they can control us, while they receive the super expensive top care.

Dr. Atkins Was Right

2009-07-25T12:33:00.002-04:00

I always knew it, I just didn't know how to explain it (hell I do have a demanding job and all that, doesn't leave much time to be an investigative medical journalist.) However, I have now discovered someone who can explain it, very well:

Buy his book here: Good Calories, Bad Calories

No Shit Sherlock

2009-07-14T21:18:00.002-04:00

Tommy Bowden says he was fired, he did not resign:

Bowden said when it became apparent he lacked administration’s support, he agreed to begin negotiating terms of a buyout instead of trying to prolong his stay by probably a matter of days or weeks.
'I’m sure if we had talked longer, I probably could have,' Bowden said. 'But at that point in time, Dabo (Swinney) was obviously in their thought process, and we had just finished in the top five in recruiting the year before.

The sad thing is: he probably could have prolonged his stay. Hell he sells himself short, he probably could have gotten a new contract with a signing bonus and a new 10 million dollar buyout. He always was a smooth bullshitter. I just wish TDP wasn't such an idiot.

Now we're stuck with Tommy 2.0, who was already in mind as the ongoing head coach before Bowden was even fired. I guess that line about "evaluating other coaches" during the remainder of the season was all bullshit too. Imagine that.

A Quick Thought About our Dear Leader

2009-07-01T16:41:00.003-04:00

In the last couple of weeks we've seen two major events on the international scene, and so far President Obama is 0 for 2 on supporting freedom. Instead, both times he has come out in support of dictators.

With the Iranian Election, the Ayatollah sanctioned election was obviously and demonstrably rigged in favor of the incumbent anti-freedom, anti-western president Ahmadinejad and as such resulted in an uprising of freedom loving Iranians who wanted their candidate, Mousavi to have a fair shot at things. In fact, because the election was such a farce it actually pushed the Iranian people to question their entire form of government with a religious figurehead in control of the entire country. The resulting protests and demonstrations were awe inspiring if you happened to follow them on Twitter and Youtube. Obviously, the media didn't do much to cover them and the Iranian Government tried to squash all coverage.

Sadly, now it appears that the resistance has been crushed, with snipers shooting at random protesters, dissidents being hung in the streets, and the international community turning a blind eye to it all, it appears that the Ayatollah and his puppet Ahmadinejad are safe and sound. President Obama feels as though this is the correct outcome as he stated "we should let the Iranians sort this out" and made it a point that we should not interject our outside opinions on the affairs of a sovereign nation.

Next, we saw a situation develop in Honduras where the President of that country tried to sign an order into law that would in effect give him dictatorial powers overriding his nation's constitution and due process. The Hondurans obviously weren't going to put up with this so their military took control of the nation and the supreme court overturned the President's action and kicked him out of office. Ask yourself, wouldn't you hope that our military and supreme court would do the same? I know I would.

What did President Obama have to say? He condemned the actions of the Honduran military and said that "governments should never interfere in the democratic process" (the president was elected, so it was wrong to throw him out of office.) Well excuse me dear leader Obama, but if you try to make yourself a dictator, you can bet your ass that you're going to be thrown out of office. If our military and supreme court won't do it, there are plenty of us Americans clinging to our guns and our religion that will do it instead!

CNN: The Socialized Medicine Shopping Network

2009-06-25T12:01:00.004-04:00

I can't help but laugh at CNN today. They have been covering the Socialized medicine bill and how the politicians are now saying they can cut the costs down to X dollars. I say X dollars because I don't know how low they are going to go. Earlier it was $1.6T, then it was $1T, and now the latest report is that the politicians have been working in a bipartisan way to reduce the costs to under one trillion dollars, yet still make sure that 97% of Americans are covered.

CNN is reporting this as if it's a completely factual and accurate statement. They have no clue what has been cut or what money has been raised to change the financing of this program, but who cares? Who needs details? The statists are telling us that they have reduced the cost, so they must have, right?

But wait, there's more! Call in the next 30 minutes, and you'll find out that it's spread over the next 10 years, so it's not really a trillion dollars, it's just a few billion per year, no worries!

That's what Obama needs. He needs to get Billy Mays to make his informercials from now on. They'd at least be entertaining then, in a gallows humor sort of way.

Oh and one last thing: the program still leaves 3% of Americans without coverage, that means about 10 million people. Guess what: there are less than that many people in America today who are both unable to get coverage and legally within the United States. So then, who is this program going to cover? Who knows, it's down to just $999,999,999,999!!!

Here's how to order!

Read all the Ayn Rand you can get your hands on

2009-06-23T00:23:00.003-04:00

I've been doing that myself, and man oh man it's like my brain has been opened up to reality for the first time. So far I've read "Atlas Shrugged", "The Voice of Reason", "The Objectivism Lexicon" and I'm halfway through "The New Left."

Rand, more than being just an Author, was a brilliant philosopher, and she invented her philosophy called Objectivism, describing it as such:

My philosophy, Objectivism, holds that:

Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man’s feelings, wishes, hopes or fears.
Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man’s senses) is man’s only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival.
Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his ownhappiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
The ideal political-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism. It is a system where men deal with one another, not as victims and executioners, nor as masters and slaves, but as traders, by free, voluntary exchange to mutual benefit. It is a system where no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force, and no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. The governmentacts only as a policeman that protects man’s rights; it uses physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use, such as criminals or foreign invaders. In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but, historically, has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.

That's exactly right. I'm going to keep reading all of her books that I can get my hands on, this is great stuff.

Obama is Missing a Golden Opportunity on Iran

2009-06-18T13:56:00.002-04:00

I really wish we hadn't elected such a rookie as the POTUS.

A quick look at the twitter stream for Iranian Election News shows that a terrific thing is happening: an oppressive, totalitarian government is trying to silence their people, but using the technology of the internet the people are still making their voices heard.

It is obvious what is going on: the Iranian government rigged the election and is now trying to cover it up. America should lead the way and gather international support for the citizens of Iran to pressure the government to stop censoring, stop banning media coverage, to open up their activities to the eyes of the world. This is where Obama should do what all Democrats all say they're going to do in international affairs (but they never really do): build an international coalition to peacefully resolve an important conflict by applying pressure from all sides on the offending government.

Where is Obama on this? "We need to sit back and let the Iranians figure this out."

Great job, assclown.

Very Interesting Article on Objectivism

2009-06-08T11:04:00.003-04:00

I've been reading a lot of Ayn Rand and Objectivist literature lately and I stumbled across a very interesting article this morning that is an interview of Ayn Rand from, of all places, Playboy. Here's my favorite part:

PLAYBOY: What about other public needs? Do you consider the post office, for example, a legitimate function of government?

RAND: Now let's get this straight. My position is fully consistent. Not only the post office, but streets, roads, and above all, schools, should all be privately owned and privately run. I advocate the separation of state and economics. The government should be concerned only with those issues which involve the use of force. This means: the police, the armed services, and the law courts to settle disputes among men. Nothing else. Everything else should be privately run and would be much better run.

I couldn't agree more. And then there's this:

PLAYBOY: Would you favor U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations?

RAND: Yes. I do not sanction the grotesque pretense of an organization allegedly devoted to world peace and human rights, which includes Soviet Russia, the worst aggressor and bloodiest butcher in history, as one of its members. The notion of protecting rights, with Soviet Russia among the protectors, is an insult to the concept of rights and to the intelligence of any man who is asked to endorse or sanction such an organization. I do not believe that an individual should cooperate with criminals, and, for all the same reasons, I do not believe that free countries should cooperate with dictatorships.

Hell yes!

You should definitely read this article.

Post Racial America

2009-05-27T00:39:00.002-04:00

What if someone said: "I would hope that a wise White man with the richness of his experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a latina woman who hasn’t lived that life."

What would you think?

Well, that's exactly how I feel when I see that these are the words of our newest supreme court justice:

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life."

- Judge Sotomayor, 2001

Awesome